Grafmonument voor Badaracco naar Giacomo Moreno op de begraafplaats van Staglieno te Genua, Italië 1876 - 1890

This photograph captures the tomb of Giuseppe Benedetto Badaracco, sculpted by Giacomo Moreno at the Staglieno Cemetery in Genoa, Italy. The cemetery opened in 1851, during a period of Italian unification and national pride. Moreno's tomb design, typical of the era's neoclassical style, features a family in mourning before a monument to the departed. What stands out, however, is the stark contrast between the static, idealized figure of the deceased, and the emotionally charged representations of his grieving relatives. The woman in the photograph, cloaked in sorrow, contrasts sharply with the composed, almost performative grief of the male figure. The photograph presents a tableau of 19th-century mourning rituals, reflecting the gendered expectations of emotional expression, as well as the visual and emotional dynamics of loss within a patriarchal society. In exploring the staging of emotion, Moreno invites us to reflect on the complexities of grief and its varied expressions.